What should students do if they don’t know the answer to a question?

If students can eliminate one or two answers, and are hesitating about the remaining two answers, it would be better to make an educated guess. If they have really no idea which of the four answers is correct, then it’s better not to answer at all. If students apply this method, it will give them an advantage in the end. Students who answer randomly will have a final score close to zero. With one chance out of four of choosing the correct answer (and thus earning 5 points) and the risk of losing a quarter of the question’s value (1.25 points) with an incorrect answer, statistically they will end up with zero. On the contrary, a student who isn’t sure of the correct answer, but thinks carefully and is able to eliminate two answers out of the four, will have a distinct advantage. Taking the time to think carefully before making a choice is clearly the best way to succeed. Of course, that is what we hope to teach our students in general: to think carefully before giving an answer!

About

At The Big Challenge, our goal is to help teachers motivate their students to learn English. We create fun games and inspirational events that teachers use to encourage classroom engagement in all their students. The Big Challenge contest started in 1998 and has 640,000 participants across Europe. Over 10 million games were played in the Game Zone in 2018.